Attached are two images taken last night of a bright Leonid meteor using an SBIG AllSky-340C camera designed to monitor the night sky. We estimate this fireball was approximately 1000 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky during its brief appearance directly overhead Santa Barbara. The fireball left a smokey trail visible for more than 10 minutes after the fireball burned up in the upper atmosphere. (Both images are the same with different processing to enhance the color).

The Leonid meteor shower happens about the same time each year as the earth passes through the debris left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle. Most meteors result when sand grain sized particles enter the earth's atmosphere as the earth passes through the debris. The occasional pebble sized particle will result is a fireball such as this one.

Comet Tempel-Tuttle is named after the two astronomers who discovered it in the late 1800's. The comet last passed by the earth on its way around the sun in 1998. At its peak the shower would display hundreds or thousands of meteors per hour, but now as the comet is far away from earth the display may produce only a dozen or so meteors per hour.

This image was taken by Alan Holmes of SBIG (Santa Barbara Instrument Group).

Submited by
Michael Barber, VP
SBIG
http://www.sbig.com/